Maintaining the cleanliness of commercial, industrial, institutional, public, and residential buildings is an ongoing effort. Various cleaning machines have been devised to clean carpeted or tiled floors, stone floors, furniture and the like.
A common way of cleaning soiled surfaces is by extracting the dirty matter from a soiled surface. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,883,301, issued to Emrick et al., a cleaning head 15 is used to spray a detergent solution on areas of textile fabric, such as carpet, upholstery and the like, and to vacuum the solution and soil from the sprayed areas.
However, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,578, issued to Bane, some of the detergent solution sprayed on a carpeted surface is left with the carpet fibers even after the surface is vacuumed with an extractor wand. This is because the detergent solution used to wash carpets is alkaline, while dirt is generally acidic. As a result, dirt is attracted to the alkaline residue left on the carpet. The alkalinity remaining with the carpet fiber greatly accelerates and increases the rate of resoiling of the carpet. To solve this problem, Bane further sprays the carpet with an acid solution to neutralize the alkaline residue left on the carpet and then vacuums the acid solution from the carpet.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,880,191, issued to Bristor, discloses an extraction cleaning system that uses a spray gun and an extraction wand or tool. The spray gun is used to apply a prespray to a carpet. The prespray is allowed to dwell on the carpet for 5-15 minutes. After the dwell time has elapsed, the extraction wand is used to apply a rinsing agent to the carpet, and to extract the rinsing agent from the carpet.
In particular, Bristor discloses a container 11 for carrying prespray chemicals and rinse agents. In preparation for applying the prespray, Bristor connects a draw tube 64 to a supply tube 90a extending into a prespray supply jar 76a, and attaches a spray gun 100 to the distal end of a delivery hose (see FIG. 8). The diluted prespray is sprayed on an area of the carpet. The prespray is permitted to dwell on the pre sprayed area for 5-15 minutes. Next, the draw tube 64 is switched from the supply tube 90a to a supply tube 90b. The second supply tube 90b extends into a supply jar 76b containing a rinse agent. In addition, the spray gun 100 is replaced with an extraction wand 114. After the dwell time has elapsed, the diluted rinse agent is sprayed on the pre sprayed area of carpet and extracted with the wand 114 (see FIG. 9). This cycle is repeated, area-by-area throughout the cleaning site 14 until the job is completed.
A shortcoming with Bristor's cleaning operation is the time that a worker spends in repeatedly switching between supply jars and repeatedly switching between the spray gun and the extractor wand. Bristor's operation would be more efficient if the series of starts and stops could be eliminated. Bristor does not allow areas of carpet to be pre sprayed while areas of pre sprayed carpet are being rinsed. In Bristor, anytime a carpet area is being rinsed, another area of carpet cannot be pre sprayed, and anytime a soiled carpet is being pre sprayed, another area of pre sprayed carpet cannot be rinsed. The step of rinsing cannot be performed at the same time as another area of pre sprayed carpet is being rinsed. The cleaning process has to stop whenever the spray gun and extraction wand have to be swapped, and whenever the supply jars have to be swapped. It would be more efficient if the switching between different jars of cleaning agents could be eliminated. Also, it would be more efficient if the switching between the spray gun and the extractor wand could be eliminated. Elimination of the time directed to all this switching would result in a more efficient process.
Another problem with cleaning machines, which use extraction wands, or tools, is the time consumed in moving various hoses to the cleaning site. At times, the hoses and cords get tangled and have to be sorted out thereby wasting time that could be used in a more beneficial manner. For example, Bane shows a mobile carpet-cleaning unit 11 that includes several reels, 16 through 19, which are suspended on a rod 22 and contain various lengths and types of hoses required to clean carpets. These hoses have to be unwound from the reels and each end of each hose has to be attached properly. It would be more efficient if some of the hoses could brought to a cleaning site with one end of each hose already connected to the components that make up cleaning apparatus.